How do you use a microphone?

My question couldn't be more simple. Specifically, I can't figure out how to use a USB microphone (namely, the one that Think Penguin sells).

I can see that when I plug it in, /dev/sr1 appears. But what I can't figure out is how to actually use it with any programs on Trisquel. I've tried the sound recorder, recordMyDesktop, and looked at Audacity (which is confusing), but the sound recorder only shows "Master" under devices (which is the microphone jack on the computer), and the recordMyDesktop GUI doesn't even give an option. Looking at the manual entry, I found out how to specify the device in the command line for recordMyDesktop, but specifying "/dev/sr1" for it leads to an error.

So, how exactly do you use a microphone like this? This is one of the things I could never figure out in GNU/Linux.

You can specify it in some programs like audacity. Otherwise go to sound settings from the volume icon in the lower right corner. In there you will see the input tab. Change the record sound from device. Make sure the input volume is up and not muted. I think there is documentation on our web site too. If not or it needs updating I'll take a look.

Thanks for the pointers Chris. I never thought it would be under the volume control settings. I can't try it now (don't have my microphone with me, and won't for a week or so), but I'll come back and beg for help again if I have trouble when I'm able to try it. So if you don't hear from me in a week or so, you can assume it worked just fine. :)

I didn't see any documentation of anything on Think Penguin, so maybe it's just in a place I didn't think to look.

While I think we do have some of the best documentation for a lot of things much of it is down to the product offering. The right decisions have been made so maintaining and updating it isn't as resource intensive as it otherwise would be.

There are certain products which could use better documentation. From installation information for less technical users (to show what a USB port looks like for example even if there are no drivers to install) to things like this (where there may be a choice to make). We do have some outdated documentation that probably would be good enough for 99.95% of users though in this instance.

I think your not seeing it under the support section because it is currently hidden from free software users. This is one of the things we need to get around to fixing. We need to develop a better system of documenting as well and then go through and selectively show the information depending on if your a free software user or not.

I use aplay -l to get a list of devices, and alsa_in to give them Jack connections (there is also alsa_out to connect speakers).

I do some ShoutCast broadcasts with Mixxx, using sound files and a live microphone connected through a Presonus Audiobox device to a USB port. I have a reasonably fast laptop (Lenovo T420), but I find the low latency kernel and Jack crucial to avoid glitches in the microphone sound.

I load the kxstudio tools through PPAs added to my Xubuntu 12.04 system. I have delayed Trisquelizing because I am not sure how it will interact with the PPAs. If you should add kxstudio to your Trisquel system, I would appreciate a description of your experience.

Alright, I'm having a problem. I went to the sound preferences, but with the microphone inserted, I don't see any extra devices listed in the Input tab. Am I missing here? It's showing up in the Hardware tab as "TP6920".